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The Tokaido Shinkansen platforms at Nagoya Station are packed with passengers on Aug. 9, when the operator ran a record 483 trains in a single day.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Chubu
Oct 21, 2024

Timetable planners form backbone of Tokaido Shinkansen's 60-year journey

Timetables based on precise demand predictions and the efforts of staffers on the ground have been integral to the evolution of bullet trains.
Erika Worobec successfully sued to compel Washington County, Pennsylvania, officials to notify voters if their mail-in or absentee ballot had a clerical error.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 17, 2024

Ahead of U.S. election, Americans sue to ensure their votes count

Both the Democratic and Republican parties are fighting for every vote ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
A Louis Vuitton store under construction in the Sanlitun area of Beijing on Oct. 12
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2024

LVMH sales drop as Chinese demand for costly handbags cools

Organic revenue at its key fashion and leather goods unit fell 5% in the third quarter, its worst performance since the second quarter of 2020.
Exports declined 1.7% from a year ago, led by cars, mineral fuels and construction machinery and slipping to negative growth for the first time since November last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 17, 2024

Japan’s exports fall most since 2021 amid global slowdown

Exports declined 1.7% from a year ago, led by cars, mineral fuels and construction machinery.
Components of a Huawei Technologies smartphone. Lawmakers in the U.S. are pushing to block Huawei suppliers from buying American chipmaking gear.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 17, 2024

Key lawmakers push to cut off Huawei suppliers from U.S. chip gear

The U.S. and its allies have broadly blocked sales of the most advanced chips and manufacturing gear to China.
Tourists watch the sunset from the beach in Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia. An IPO by Holywings Group, owner of the luxurious three-hectare Atlas Beach Club in Bali, would add to as many as 95 companies planning to list in Southeast Asia’s biggest stock market, according to data from the Financial Services Authority.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2024

Owner of Bali’s biggest luxury beach club considering IPO to expand across Asia

The IPO would add to as many as 95 companies planning to list in Southeast Asia’s biggest stock market, according to data from the Financial Services Authority.
Zootechnician Alejandra Curubo holds a tadpole in Nocaima, Cundinamarca department, Colombia, on July 9.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 17, 2024

Lab-grown frogs: A Colombian's response to wildlife trafficking

The illegal trade in wild flora and fauna is the fourth-most profitable illicit business in the world.
Toyota Research Institute and Boston Dynamics are set to conduct research on use cases for AI-trained robots in areas such as human-robot interaction.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2024

Toyota joins with Hyundai's Boston Dynamics on AI-powered robots

Toyota has said it has made a breakthrough with artificial intelligence in teaching robots to learn.
Japan's core inflation slowed in September due to the rollout of energy subsidies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 18, 2024

Japan’s inflation slows for first time since April

The slowdown in price gains largely hangs on government subsidies.
Ubitus, which received funding from Nvidia earlier this year, joins a growing list of tech companies at the forefront of a global revival in nuclear power.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2024

Nvidia-backed firm eyes a data center near nuclear power in Japan

The Nvidia-backed company Ubitus joins a growing list of tech companies at the forefront of a global revival in nuclear power.
Alimentation Couche-Tard and Seven & I Holdings directly compete in thousands of locations across the United States, with more than 45% of Circle Ks within two miles of a 7-Eleven or related store.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2024

Couche-Tard’s 7-Eleven overlaps to face skeptical U.S. FTC review

More than 45% of Circle Ks are within two miles of a 7-Eleven or related store.
A customer shops for tomatoes at the vegetable section of a supermarket in Beijing on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 18, 2024

China's third-quarter GDP hits weakest pace since early 2023

Authorities have sharply ramped up policy stimulus, but markets are waiting for a clearer road map to put the economy back on a solid longer-term footing.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda can point to Washington all he wants, but his inability to settle on a consistent message is part of what ails his nation's currency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 18, 2024

The yen pays the price for a timid Bank of Japan

Ueda can point to Washington all he wants, but his inability to settle on a consistent message is part of what ails his nation's currency.
China has shifted the economic narrative. The country's rapid growth and production under a repressive regime challenges the idea that good institutions are necessary for wealth.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2024

Beijing’s success is a conundrum for Nobel winners

China has shifted the economic narrative. The country's rapid growth under a repressive regime challenges the idea that good institutions are necessary for wealth.
Sanzo K. Matsunaga’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novel “Bari Sanko” centers on two men involved in an office hiking club. One is into dangerous off-path trekking, the other is more of a by-the-book conformist.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2024

Akutagawa winner ‘Bari Sanko’ takes office politics to the mountains

Though the plot takes time to get going, Sanzo K. Matsunaga’s novel takes a nuanced look at the implications of being an independent thinker in Japan’s corporate culture.
The Tokyo Electron logo is displayed at the Semicon Japan exhibition in Tokyo last December.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 19, 2024

Japan pressed by U.S. lawmakers to strengthen chip curbs on China

China remains a crucial and lucrative market for all chip toolmakers, and officials in Tokyo and the Hague are cautious about imposing more restrictions.
Interest on the federal debt exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in fiscal 2024 while spending grew for the Social Security retirement program, health care and the military, the Treasury Department said Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 19, 2024

U.S. budget deficit tops $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2024, third-largest on record

The deficit for the year ended Sept. 30 was up 8%, or $138 billion, from the $1.695 trillion recorded in fiscal 2023.
A Tokyo Electric Power Co. employee opens a watertight door inside the Unit 7 reactor building at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, on Aug. 6.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 19, 2024

Japan shifting back to nuclear to ditch coal and power AI

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the world's biggest nuclear plant, could help Japan cut carbon emissions while also powering artificial intelligence.
Yokohama-based Fuji Soft held a board meeting on Friday and decided to stick with KKR’s tender for its shares despite receiving a higher bid from Bain Capital.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 20, 2024

Fuji Soft sticks with KKR despite higher takeover offer from Bain

The special committee advising Fuji Soft said it would be difficult for Bain to take the company private, according to a statement.
Indonesia's new leader, Prabowo Subianto, arrives for his presidential inauguration ceremony in Jakarta on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 20, 2024

Prabowo Subianto, a former general, sworn in as Indonesian president

The inauguration marks a noteworthy comeback for a man who faced Western-imposed sanctions and had two failed election bids against Widodo, the man he is now replacing.
An electric stock board at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, operated by Japan Exchange Group, in Tokyo on April 19
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 21, 2024

Asian IPOs set for blockbuster week as ‘animal spirits’ return

Asian markets are seeing a return of "animal spirits," or changes in market behavior often driven by emotions.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 16. The incessant demand for electricity that the artificial boom is placing on chipmakers such as TSMC has made opposition to nuclear power harder to maintain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 21, 2024

Taiwan signals openness to new nuclear tech amid surging AI power demand

Premier Cho Jung-tai's comments underscore what appears to be a shift by a government that has opposed using nuclear power for safety reasons.
An airplane specially painted with the theme of Tokyo DisneySea's Fantasy Springs area
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 21, 2024

JAL unveils plane themed on Tokyo DisneySea's new area

The plane, which features characters from the Disney movies "Frozen," "Tangled" and "Peter Pan," will mainly fly on domestic routes until November next year.
The Zeekr Mix at the Beijing Auto Show
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 21, 2024

Mixing hotpot with horsepower. Have Chinese car gimmicks gone too far?

A recent Zeekr campaign underscores the lengths Chinese EV makers will go to to stand out in an ultracompetitive market.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Fall meetings signage outside the IMF headquarters in Washington on Sunday
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 21, 2024

As poor nations' default wave peaks, a cash shortage could replace it

The issue, and what to do about it when Western countries are increasingly loath to send money overseas, is a key topic at the IMF World Bank autumn meetings this week.
The emotional impact of constant news about wars and disasters is weighing heavily on many in the younger generations, causing them to seek ways to cope with their distress and anxiety.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2024

Is the apocalypse making you too anxious to work?

A poll reveals that a significant portion of the Gen Z and millennial generations feel unable to function at work due to distress over current events.
Since the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008, Manchester City has gone from a middling team to winning six of the last seven Premier League titles, an unprecedented success in over 130 years of English soccer.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2024

Soccer needs to avoid a tyranny of the rich

A dispute between the Premier League and Manchester City has both sides claiming victory.
Items confiscated by police in connection with several girls bars in Tokyo that operated without authorization in violation of the adult entertainment business law
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2024

17 Vietnamese women arrested over illegal girls bars in Tokyo

The Metropolitan Police Department has received a total of 23 complaints since 2020 about the five bars where the women were arrested.
High construction costs due to rising material and labor costs continue to push up sales prices of new condominiums.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 22, 2024

Tokyo-area condo price hits new high in first half of fiscal 2024

The average price in the area, which includes Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, rose 1.5% from ¥78.36 million a year earlier.
Built by Russian energy giant Gazprom, the pipeline from Comprehensive Gas Treatment Unit No.3 runs about 3,000 kilometers from the Chayandinskoye and Kovyktinskoye gas fields in the coldest part of Siberia to Blagoveshchensk, near the Chinese border.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 22, 2024

China overtaking Europe as top market for Russia’s pipeline gas

Russia’s Gazprom exported 23.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China in January-September, compared with 22.5 billion cubic meters to European customers.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?